Category: Prealgebra

Last week I gave a presentation at AMATYC about video games for learning algebra. As usual, Mat Moore did a fantastic illustration for the prezi. It was staged in five levels: Level 1: Why use games? Level 2: What is a game? (manipulatives, puzzles, and games) Level 3: Become a Math Game Critic Level 4: Play GOOD Games Level 5: Good Algebra Video Games? You can click through the Prezi below. Level Up! Video Games for Learning Algebra on Prezi Possibly Related Posts: Group Exploration in Math AMATYC Keynote Notes: Challenge and Curiosity Full version of Algeboats is...

I don’t even really know how to begin here. For the last three years I’ve been working on a secret little project that I wasn’t allowed to talk about in public (NDA). I’ve been designing digital games for learning algebra in my (ha ha) free time. The last couple months have been an absolutely insane flurry of activity as we approached the launch date and as a result, I haven’t posted much. Finally I can tell you that I’m no longer a wannabe game designer. I’ve designed four game apps that are now out in the iPad App store!...

If you ever needed a REASON to calculate the highest point of a parabola that opens downward, here’s one. Possibly Related Posts: Group Exploration in Math Elaborations for Creative Thinking in STEM Learning Math is Not a Spectator Sport Recorded Webinar: Teaching Math in 2020 AMATYC Keynote Notes: Challenge and...

A few weeks ago I built two new games for algebra in one week. These games just use the game mechanic from “Antiderivative Block” (a Calculus game), but with algebra-oriented game cards. The game mechanic is a classic “get 4-in-a-row” so it’s pretty easy to learn. Exponent Block (plus Gameboard) will help students contrast slightly different expressions involving exponent rules, especially negative and zero exponents. Factor Pair Block (plus Gameboard) will help prepare students for a unit on factoring. There are two sets of playing cards (print each set on a different color of paper if you want to...

For those of you who are curious what we were actually doing in class in yesterday’s post (Record with a Document Camera and a Flip), we were “fingerprinting” the factors of composite numbers with their prime compositions. The wooden “prime number tiles” are created using the backs of Scrabble tiles and the white tiles you see on the board are the student version of the prime number tiles (each of them cut out a sheet of their own prime number tile manipulatives at the beginning of class). Just for the record, I would like to confess to destroying more...